


But You're Right Here

by Melee12, WaldosAkimbo



Series: Hermann and Newt and Charlie Play With Portals [1]
Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Multiverse, Newton Geiszler Dies, learning to get over grief, much needed friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2019-08-02 20:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16312142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melee12/pseuds/Melee12, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaldosAkimbo/pseuds/WaldosAkimbo
Summary: Hermann Gottlieb can’t get over his best friend and target of his affection dying.  When a chance to get Newton back occurs to him, he tries it.  Unfortunately, he finds someone else.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you in advanced to everyone reading this. I hope to use this to get back into writing after a long break. Updates will be weekly on Mondays.

It was in the way that two mugs sat together on a lab table, one full, one empty. Ten years and still it seemed the bleary eyed morning haze kept him from noticing he put his cane down to grab two cold, ceramic handles, one blue, one brown, and put them next to the old pot. While the liquid life dripped, Hermann would sometimes take notice of the foggy blue mug, with visions of sugar cubes filling nearly half the cup, ready for the warm liquid to turn it into a sand-like base at the bottom that would harden and be terribly hard to wash out at the end of the day. Sometimes he accidentally made the cup, and it sat there, steam lingering above like a ghost.

Today, he had noticed sooner rather than later, so the mug went back up into the cupboard. 

He took his cane and his own brown mug, filled with black coffee, and turned around to look at the small lab he was in. Not the same. Not since he’d been left alone. He had been downsized when he stayed and the other half of his duo, the better half, left. This new space was a quarter of the size of the old lab, yet still he felt a line of invisible tape down the center. He walked to the edge of it, not daring to cross, and looked at the workbench on the other side. You could write a word in the layer of dust that had settled on the surface. Why was there echos of some distant laugh?

He shook his head and the echoes were replaced. There was the ringing silence that buzzed through his head. 

This was pure solitude. A life sentence. 

How could ten years go by, and one still pull two mugs out for morning coffee? Was he really that tired? When did he get so old and so slow? 

He should be used to this still, stagnant existence.

Ten years ago Newton had left him, in a flurry of wild excitement for new beginnings but he still wasn’t used to it. 

Hermann thought he would have came back. Sent a text. A letter. Ten years. Nothing.

He missed how Newton’s work seemed to bleed out from his side of the room and fill up the lab. He missed that exuberant laugh. That earthshaking volume of his voice. How he spoke so excitedly about every bit of biology and its engineering. Hermann couldn’t help but miss every bit of the essence that was, purely, Newton. 

Hermann knew he was half to blame. He had the letter ready. Written. Sealed. Stamped. Never sent. He could open a drawer and put out one hundred and sixty two identical, white envelops, all with thoughts, feelings, knowledge, all sealed away and stamped and placed neatly in the drawer beneath his lab computer. Never sent. He should have sent them. Should have contacted Newton sooner. Could have known something was wrong sooner.

When Hermann had seen him for the first time in years, in the Shatterdome with his boss he had left him for, his heart had jumped up from its cobweb-covered corner and beat like a drum. When he had broke into Shao Industries and he thought they were teaming up again, Gottlieb had hope. Something in him had risen from ashes and been reborn. When they brought him back after that crazy ride with the Precursors, Hermann had thought he had the chance to have Newton back. 

Until he was gone. 

Newton didn’t last very long after speaking of what happened. His mind had been at war with a million minds coursing through his head. His body had begun to heat up, grow pale and sick. It was a fever that seemed to be on a steady rise and no medication or fluids could halt. They had let Newton be out on top. Feel it. When it was obvious it was too late, Hermann was allowed to spend his last hours with him.

Why did it have to hurt so badly?

It’s as if floodgates had been open. He had never realized he had fallen in love with Newton. He should have known. The feeling had been a dull rusty knife, slowly carving out his heart when the man left to work for Shao Industries. 

Hermann hadn’t agreed with it. Newton saw a new avenue to grow in while Hermann had argued he was going to work for a capitalistic pig, looking to bleed a scientist dry. But, Hermann hadn’t stop him when he boarded the helicopter and flew out of his life.

He also hadn’t realized how lonely he was, until Newton left him. You share a life with someone so long, be them dashing, loud, and somewhat endearing, and you’ll never get used to their voice turning off like a light in your head. 

It was a month Newton had stayed with them from beginning to end. 

When Newton was initially locked up, Hermann would visit Newton most the day. No one stopped him. He would talk with the things that weren’t Newton, trying to pull the real Newton back to reality. There were a few times there were breakthroughs. You could see it on the brain wave monitor, the spikes that were Newton starting to pull through. He was pulling Newton more and more to the front. He could tell when the not Newton minds got angry it was losing control of the body. With it happening more and more, Newton was able to tell them more and more about the Precursors. He was more lively for Hermann. They were sharing coffee and meals in the interrogation room, reminiscing about the old lab. Newton was a bit shaky; holding control of his own body was hard for him at this point, but he was managing. 

Hermann’s heart felt fuller than it had for years. 

The day he announced his affection was the happiest day of his life. It had been returned. There was a kiss and a promise made, the promise to pull Newton out of his head and into a life with Hermann. 

The next morning when he was found in his cell, Newton’s body was starting on his sickness that would take his life in forty eight hours. It was obvious Hermann could never make good on that promise.

You can’t very well marry a dead man. No matter how much you cry and beg the gods, they won’t turn back time. What’s dead, remains dead. No matter how much it hurts. He held his hand in the last minutes, kissed the love of his life goodbye right before his heart flatlined at the peak of heat. 

The funeral, if one could even call it that, was that night. There wasn’t any proper consultation of Newton’s faith or with any left over family members of his. Newton was treated as though his corpse was diseased. A quick showing off to those who knew him in the dome then straight into a cremation oven in the morgue of the medical ward. It was disrespectful and all too quick. Hermann had to be dragged away when he had started screaming and tried to stop it.

Hermann wouldn’t leave his room for three days after it. Jake and Nate had been in rotation bringing him his meals, letting him grieve alone. 

He didn’t have someone he felt he could have talked to. Herc Hansen had retired, his son and best friend dying had practically aged him twenty five years. Let the man have his peace. Tendo Choi had moved on from the Shatterdome to start a family and build a small tech company. Bothering him would have just been a burden. His first choice to talk to would have been Mako Mori, but with her violent passing, may her soul be at everlasting peace. People he would have talked to, opened up to, no longer were around.

On that third day, the two of them came asking for something.


	2. Opportunity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermann gets a new project.

“I meant it when I said we’re going to bring the fight to them,” Jake said from Hermann’s desk seat. 

Hermann didn’t feel perfectly comfortable having both him and Nate in his room while he laid in bed in his flannels, but this time the two men had let themselves in as they dropped off dinner.

Nate continued for Jake. “We can take the fight to them. We know how to now. Well, we have some idea of how to do it. All that information you got out of Newton before he-Fuck!”

Jake had kicked Nate swiftly to shut him up. 

Hermann’s chest still clenched, knowing what Nate had been about to say. He sunk back down into his bed as Jake picked back up.

“The information you received from the Precursors. All the Universes out there. How it’s possible to make portals in between. We don’t want to open the one at the bottom of the ocean. But what if we made one of our own? Went in on our terms and brought the war to them. Do you think it’s possible? You were given some...what were they, algorithms? That could help make a portal? From…”

_Newton. From Newton._ Hermann let out a small ‘mmhrmp’ in thought. Nate punched Jake in the shoulder back. 

“Let’s get some revenge, Gottlieb,” Nate continued the conversation.

_Revenge? Revenge for the world?_ No, Hermann did care about what had happened to the world, but he only wanted revenge for one man. This might have very well been some kind of consolation prize that the Universe was handing him. 

“We start tomorrow at 6 am,” Hermann murmured, eyes downturned at his blanket.

He didn’t see Jake and Nate break into grins and the look they exchanged. 

Jake jumped up from the desk seat. “We’ll be there, Gottlieb. We’re going to get a big budget, start building new Jaegers, and get you into your old lab space, built out a bit bigger with an engineering staff.” 

Hermann smiled to himself a bit. “We can only hope for the best. I’m sure there will be some countries contesting this idea. Opening a portal would mean allowing them back in, possibly.”

“That’s why we’ll be in control of it. You’ll be in control of it. You’ll shut it down if we need to. We’ll get the backing. Marshal Quinton is already putting out requests,” Nate informed.

Quinton? Right, Quan must have either stepped down or died. He would have to ask Nate or Jake later. “Well, alright boys. Let this old man sleep then. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“You won’t regret this, Gottlieb,” Jake said as he headed for the door, practically vibrating with excitement in his boots. Hermann knew it wasn’t because he was hungry to kill Precursors, it was the thought of revenge, finishing this war his father had fought so hard in, to try to reach some sense of closure.

“Goodnight, Gottlieb,” Nate said as he closed the door, heading after Jake. 

An odd couple, those two. He wondered if their chemistry together would mean more, or...best not to dwell on others’ relationships. He wondered how many had looked at him and Newton and seen the sparks he hadn’t seen until much too late. He wondered if he could count the nights, how many were wasted on thoughts of what could have been. They seemed to stretch on these days. _Newton._

“If I could only hear your voice once more...just one last time….” Hermann curled back up in bed. A shot of pain went through his hip as his eyes teared up. He grimaced and moved around a bit more until he got slightly comfortable. He sighed and closed his eyes. 

One last time and he could die comfortably.

\--------------------

It was only a month of delegation before they got the funding they needed. With the return of the Kaiju, the Mega Kaiju specifically, fear had spread. Fear, it seemed, was a powerful motive. Send in our own men, kill the creatures that were after human extinction. Seemed simple. Almost. There was, of course, the scientific aspects to take into consideration. Jaegers. Easy. Plenty of men and woman had dedicated their lives into the building of those fantastic, metal beasts. However, no one had exactly managed to make a portal to another universe. 

That was where Hermann stepped in. Look at those numbers of God now. He spent the month running numbers and algorithms and making blueprints. There was so much to do. The thought of Newton kept Hermann working long into the night. He wondered much too much about the man. 

What killed Newton? The Precursors? Of course they did. They did it to shut him up, no doubt. Was Newton fighting to keep alive to stay with him? Was their admittance of feelings the end of it? Sweet release to know that feelings they both felt though their years together were returned? Just as Hermann wished to hear him in person one last time to give him comfort to die, was Newton’s one last wish keeping him alive that Hermann would return those feelings and he could die happy? _Did he die happy?_ Was it a horrible fight or a silent give in? How long were they screaming in his head? How loud was it? Was he in pain when he left the world?

Those were all thoughts Hermann tried to drown out with his work. 

But, that was hard. 

In the next months while he worked, Hermann got his small lab turned into an office for himself. On the desk was a purple and blue vase that held a bit of Newton’s ashes he had been allowed to keep while the rest went to Newton’s father and Uncle. The vase was one Newton had picked up on a trip to see his father. Newton had given it to him one Christmas, claiming it was a perfect colorful mix of Hermann’s favourite shade of purple and bright Kaiju blue. Newton had been right; it was perfect. Next to the vase, Hermann had put the picture of himself and Newton that Tendo had taken years ago, during the festivities that followed saving the world and closing the original portal at the bottom of the ocean. Both of their eyes looked bloodshot, Hermann’s mouth had tasted like vomit, and Newton’s nose was bleeding. They had both broke down crying and laughter, faces discolored, Hermann’s pale, Newton’s pinkish red blotched.

But, there they grinned, like two idiots who had just won the lottery. 

Hermann’s heart felt hollow every time he looked at that picture. He longed to be in that moment. He longed to kiss Newton and tell him he loved him; then maybe he would have stayed. Maybe they could have fought the Precursors out of Newton’s head before they took over as badly as they had. So many ‘what if’ situations kept him up through the nights and days. The bags under his eyes grew dark and purple, the rest of his face pale. There was more than once he would have a meal and just throw it right back up. Everyone was too busy to notice the good Doctor fading away. His ribs showed when he looked at himself in the mirror, cheekbones more prominent, too. His fingers constantly felt cold and boney. He swore his bones creaked audibly enough for everyone to hear when he moved. 

It was Jake who was the first to see him, walked in on him shirtless in his room, and drag him straight to the medical wing. He was placed into 24 hour surveillance due to the extreme malnutrition. He spent his nights in the medical wing, taking sleeping pills to sleep. During the day he had a nurse with him in his office and lab while he worked, feeding him pills during a strict meal schedule to help him gain weight and keep food down. Work was stopped for himself and his engineer team for his Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and three snacks in between. They didn’t let him start sleeping back in his own room until he gained 22 pounds back in four months. 

He made a breakthrough another two months later. They made a few small portals over the months, one a Kaiju couldn’t make it through. Three by three meters. The portal opened and a test robot, not unlike the rovers on the moon, was sent in. He had done it. 

The universe they had made it to wasn’t the Precursor’s, but one full of plant life in purples and yellows, and colorful bird-like creatures in greys, reds, and blues. They could actually see the other world from the portal like some kind of mirror looking into it.  
It was fantastic. They shared it with the world and before Hermann knew it, he was on some talk shows and at some scientific conventions being paraded around like one of those giant stuffed carnival prizes. The fame was something he wasn’t used to. It made him anxious, but this helped to increase funding for Project PW3. Precursor War 3. It was a ridiculous name, if you had to ask Hermann. He was sure, no, positive, that Jake definitely had a hand in naming it. 

The more they were ready for this, the better it would go. New recruits for the Jaeger program were constantly coming in. Shatterdomes all over the globe were reopening for the war to prepare for battle. 

A month and a half of parading around and Hermann was back in his lab. Time just seemed to fly by nowadays. 

Now, they had the portal, but it was opening out to all these different universes. Some alive, some dead, some openings on a planet, some openings in outer space, some that looked just like their own society on the other side, humans and all. That was a weird feeling, knowing that there were other humans out there in the multiverse, with cities, people, cars, the works. In some there were even the same continents, named the same way or slightly different. The people were certainly different, but so very much close to the universe they had now. 

Hermann wondered. With all the possibilities, was there another himself out there? One that lived his life through with no Kaiju to worry about? What would he had done with himself if he hadn’t had a Shatterdome to work in? No K-Science Lab? 

Was there another Newton?

That thought was thrown away as they worked hard. They needed to pinpoint the correct universe. 

Hermann wondered what Newton would have done for it if he was still alive. Newton’s favourite activity had always seemed to be playing around in Kaiju guts. How could that possibly apply to a portal attaching to all these different universes? What would he do with all that material? 

Material? Genetic Material. DNA. Could they use DNA? Would that be able to pinpoint the Precursors? 

Another couple months went by and Hermann had hooked up a machine that could use DNA to ‘search’ for that specific DNA in the multiverse. It was like typing into a search engine. Some Kaiju epidermal went right into ‘the search bar’, which was, in this case a genetics reading tube, and away it went. Hermann used the control panel to have the machine keep skipping through universe until it found one with the DNA. It opened out to a dead universe. 

They had seen dead worlds before, but the dead universe, that was so much more different. It was empty and darkish. All stars burned deep red, twinkling away. Hunks of rock, ice, and remains of old civilization cast into the deepness of space hurtled around the dying stars. Soon the universe would be darkness. 

They ran into more. Most were red and dying or completely dark. From Hermann’s side they had to shine in the brightest of spotlights to try to light something up. All they could find were ice rocks hurtling through those universes. The discovery was one Hermann had hoped never to make in his lifetime, but here he was.

It depressed him. The nothingness. Did Newton have to see all this? Was he forced to know what the Precursors did to other universes? Did they torment him with running memories of what they had done? Total extermination? Feeding off civilizations and planets like an ever ravenous plague?

It turned Hermann’s stomach. For a month, that was his day. In and out. New dead universes. Red and black. Black and Red. Remains. Dead. They would know they were at the right place when they reached civilization. Precursor civilization. It gave him too much time. 

He thought of Newton daily. This parade of death was what Newton had seen on a daily basis at the end of his days, he was sure of it. Newton had been locked in a cell, forced in his head, and at the mercy of them. He saw death after death with his only relief when Hermann came to help pull him from the madness. Hermann was positive. When he gave Newton his love, he gave the man his final release. He gave Newton his freedom to die. Hermann’s love was a mercy killing. Keeping it in longer would have kept him in misery but he would have been alive and still here. Wouldn’t he? 

Oh Newton, why did you have to leave?

When had Hermann started crying? He wiped his eyes as he sat at the control panel to the portal. His watched read 2:33 am. How long had he been sitting here? He had said goodnight to Marvin, a tech, hours ago, at 10 pm, when he shut down the machine. Had he just froze up and slipped straight into his thoughts of Newton? Hermann reached for his cane and put it across his lap, looking down at it.

“...my mind is hardly my own these days, old friend…” He whispered to his cane. He looked up at the panel again. It was quietly humming. He put a hand on it. Why couldn’t it just bring him to where he wanted to be? It had been so long. He was tired of looking at an eternity of death. It was hellish. He wanted to look at the life again. Every universe was being catalogued. Maybe he could go into a different humanity and live there? He doubted he’d be safe; Precursors seemed to be out to find everywhere eventually. Oh, why couldn’t he just slip into a new universe with Newton? That’s really all he wanted, oh so badly. He looked at the Kaiju epidermal in the DNA tracking tube. Why couldn’t he be looking for Newton instead of Precursors. 

Wait.

Could he look for Newton? Would Newton be out there? Another Newton? Alive? Or would this be able to bring Hermann to a place after death where Newton would be? Could that exist? Hermann’s eyes went wide as he scrambled up. Could he use this machine to get to Newton? Could he have him back? He quickly took the tube holding the Kaiju epidermal out of the machine and put it next to an empty tube on a lab station. 

It was a stupid idea, a ridiculous one, but could it work? He ran, well, hobbled quickly to his office with his cane. There, he grabbed his small vase holding some of Newton’s ashes and went back to the lab. 

It was 2:46 am exactly when he hooked up the new tube, containing just a small amount of Newton’s ashes to the portal and started it up. 

Ridiculous. 

Stupid.

Couldn’t work.

Impossible.

Only, it was working. They had tested this machine with inanimate objects and it hadn’t worked before. He was sure it wouldn’t work unless there was something to find. The portal stopped at a universe they had opened before as it showed up on the control display as ‘E-13’ in the machine instead of ‘Unknown’. 

Hermann hurried in front of it to look in and see a dull glow of a bar after hours in front of him. 

There was no one there. Hermann’s shoulder’s fell and he sighed softly. What had he expected? Ridiculous, stupid, couldn’t work, impossible. It probably just brought up somewhere that had humans. 

He was about to start back to the control panel to turn it off when he heard the most familiar humming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading. Kudos is always wonderful. Comments mean the world. See you next week.


	3. Mistaken Identity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone coming to read.
> 
> Special thanks to WaldosAkimbo, for editing, and writing the companion story 'The Gang Finds a New Charlie', which is what Newton is up to over in the other world. Right over here ---> https://archiveofourown.org/works/16346066

Hermann looked into the bar searching for the one making the humming noise.  He got close to the Portal’s ‘mirror’ and noticed the humming got louder. A man walked from a hallway up to the bar, dragging some kind of stick behind him.  Even in ripped jeans, a tattered shirt, army green jacket, and a scruffy beard and mustache, Hermann recognized him. The light was dim, the place unfamiliar, but he recognized that face. That voice. The man hadn’t noticed the giant bright portal yet.  Maybe that was because he seemed to drop whatever stick he was dragging to yawn while he got himself a beer behind the bar.

 

Hermann waited a moment while his heart practically stopped.  He didn’t know what to say; he was trying to speak, but no words came out until the man turned to look and finally saw him.  Hermann quickly blurted out “Newton!” Which made the man jump back.

 

“Oh my fucking god! Holy shit!” yelled the Newton in the bar.  He jumped backwards, away from the portal while Hermann stared at him.  He had dropped his beer in the process, shattering it on the ground. 

 

“Uh. Hi,”  Hermann said.   _ Yes, the man you pined for, for what, fifteen years? More than that? Well, he’s in front of you and you can only muster “hi?” Very good, Hermann.   _ Herman thought.  

 

“...H-hi,” the new Newton answered.  The Newton picked up his stick off the ground and dragged it behind himself as he slowly started towards the portal.  “Holy shit…” he whispered again. He stalked closer, slightly hunched over.

 

“You...you’re here.  You’re really here,” Hermann said.  “It worked.” He was completely baffled while understanding that it must have really opened up to another Newton in the multiverse. 

 

“Of...course I’m here?  I...I work here. Are you an alien?  You’re not green, so you can’t be a ghoul,”  The Newton said as he got up close to the portal, looking straight into Hermann’s eyes then behind him at the lab.

 

Hermann eyed him up and down.  He was so close. Close enough to grab…. So he did.  

 

Before he even realized what he was doing, he grabbed poor Newton and dragged him through the portal, pulling them both onto the floor of the lab.  They crashed down hard on the lab floor. Hermann yelped in pain as he hit his leg and hip.  _ Oh, that hurt _ .

 

Newton yelled out as well as he fell on his hands and knees next to Hermann.  His stick fell between them. 

 

Wait. 

 

Wait one second.  

 

That wasn’t a stick. That was a  _ bat _ with huge nails through it.  What the fuck?! Newton quickly grabbed it by the handle and raised it above his head while he let out a high pitched shriek. Hermann scrambled to scoot back and get down as the barbed bat came down in the space he had previously occupied.

 

Hermann got up and ran, half stumbling to the control panel. Newton righted himself, still shrieking as he came at him with the bat again.

 

Hermann screamed as Newton brought the bat down on the control panel, smashing it. Not just once, mind you, but several times, again and again and again. The portal sputtered and suddenly began to shoot electricity out.   

 

Now both Hermann and Newton were screaming and running around, with Newton swinging at Hermann as the portal started to heat up, losing control of it’s matrix.  Everything was put to a strong halt as the portal exploded and knocked both Hermann and the Newton back against the walls of the lab. 

 

That set off some piercing alarm through the Shatterdome. 

 

It was just a few minutes before Jake, Nate, Marshal Quinton, and a handful of techs went running into the lab in pajamas.  

 

Jake ran over to help Hermann up quickly. Priority, perhaps, since he was working so diligently on the portal.  

 

“Gottlieb?” Jake yelled, gripping Hermann’s arm. “Gottlieb?!  Are you alright?!”

 

Hermann was nodding his head and pointing at their new Newton.

 

Nate stepped over towards Newton while the Marshal checked out the destroyed portal.

 

“Hey! Hey you, what are you-“  Nate’s eyes went wide as Newton got up with his bat, stumbling back away from Nate.  “Newt? Holy shit. Dr. Geiszler?!”

 

Jake looked over towards Nate and Newton.  “What the hell? Newt? Is that you?”

 

Hermann nodded, but Newton shook his head no.  

 

“No. No, I’m not whoever that is!” Newton raised the bat again.  “I’m Charlie, okay? Who the hell are you people?!” 

 

Charlie. But. That couldn’t be right. Hermann looked him up and down. That was certainly Newton.

 

Jake looked back at Hermann. “Gottlieb, what did you do?”  he whispered.

 

“I...I was looking for Newton,” Hermann whispered.

 

Charlie was absolutely not letting go of that bat.

 

Nate put his hands up to show surrender.  “Hey. Hey, Charlie, it’s okay. You can put the bat down.  It’s alright, Charlie. I’m Nate. It’s nice to meet you. Can you put the bat down for me?” he asked quietly, trying to defuse Charlie.

 

Charlie shook his head.  “No way, dude! Who  _ are  _ you people?! Ah, shit man, you  _ must  _ be ghouls! Fuck!”

 

Jake scowled.  “You used the portal to try to get another Newton?  Gottlieb, why would you do that?”

 

Hermann was quiet for a moment.  “...I just missed him so much,” he whispered. 

 

At the moment, Hermann couldn’t meet Jake’s eye.  Instead, he looked back at Charlie. They looked so much like Newton. They had to be. His heart seemed to melt and he smiled inwardly.  Even terrified and scruffy, Newton was a soft, cute little soul. Even if he had attacked Hermann, he was just scared, wasn’t he? That was nothing Hermann couldn’t diffuse, given a few minutes. 

 

“We’re the PPDC. The Pan Pacific Defense Corps.  We were created by the United Nations to combat Kaiju and save the Earth. Our Earth. We fought a war against them and won.  But now we’re looking to go to their world and wipe them out so they can never come back here and try and kill us. We created a portal, and it seems you accidentally went through it.  We’re the good guys, Charlie. And we’re humans, just from a different universe. We mean you no harm. Can you put the bat down?” Nate asked Charlie, hands still up. 

 

“No! Not yet!  Why do I keep getting called Newton?!”  Charlie’s voice was a bit higher pitched, close to hysterics.

 

“Do you realize how wrong this is, Gottlieb? We hadn’t made any contact with any of the other universes because that’s not the mission,”  Jake snapped. “Why would you think this was a good idea?!”

 

“I didn’t think it was a good idea, I just...didn’t think.  You can’t possibly know what it’s like to have the one you love be ripped from you the way I had it ripped from me.  I’ve been miserable, Jake. End of my rope,” Hermann snapped right back and pulled away from Jake, resting on his cane.  “I think of him all hours of the day. He’s everything in my head; my only reason to go on. I needed him,” Hermann insisted.

 

“Because that’s who you were in this universe, Charlie.  We’re an alternate universe to yours. Newton Geiszler was the man who was you here, a scientist and friend to Hermann over there.”  Nate thumbed towards Hermann.

 

“The guy who pulled me here?”  Charlie lowered his bat a little.  “...why did he pull me in here?”

 

“I do too.  You think just cause I wasn’t close with my old man or Mako anymore, it doesn’t hurt? Them being my family means it hurt really fucking much, thank you!  It hurts everyday knowing that my father will never be there to see me try to make it up to him for what I did years ago. I wish we could have been on good terms when he died.  I have to live with that every day. This man, Charlie, was living his own world, Gottlieb, and you kidnapped him from it,” Jake barked at Hermann.

 

Hermann looked at the ground.  Charlie. He didn’t want a Charlie, he wanted his Newton.  But his Newton was dead. Damn it, what did he just do. “...I didn’t mean to, it just happened,”  Hermann said as he looked towards the portal. “And now I don’t think I can send him back….”

 

Nate sighed.  “Because Newton died.  It left him lonely and he did something stupid.  I’m sorry you got into this. We didn’t mean to pull you from your universe.  Listen, put the bat down and let’s talk. I know you’re scared. I’m sorry.” 

 

Charlie paused a moment before lowering it.  “...fine, but I’m not giving it to you. Can you send me back to my universe?”

 

“ _ Weeell _ .  Here’s the thing, Charlie.” Nate looked at the portal.  “You and Hermann kind of broke the portal, meaning I can’t get you home until it’s up and running again. We’d like to get you home, but we need your patience and cooperation because we don’t even know what to do with you in this situation.” Nate slowly walked towards Charlie again and Charlie raised the bat in self defense.  Nate took a few steps back. “Alright, you’re scared. That’s okay.” 

 

Charlie sneered.  “I don’t want to be experimented on,” Charlie’s fingers wrapped a little tighter around the bat. 

 

“No one is going to experiment on you,”  Nate replied. “We’re on a base. We’ll set you up with someone. You’ll have places you’ll be permitted to see, a room to stay in, meals at the cafeteria.  You won’t be hurt. I swear on my life.” 

 

Marshal Quinton was moving towards them finally.  “So. He’s…”

 

“Charlie.  Not Newton.  From the portal.  Gottlieb pulled him from his alternate universe,”  Nate relayed. “We won’t be able to send him home until the portal is up and running again.”

 

The Marshal nodded his head.  “What a mess…. Gottlieb, I don’t know what you were thinking, but you’re on suspension for two weeks.  Stay out of the lab. You may still access your office,” Quinton rubbed his face. “Ranger Lambert, you’re on reconstruction duty for the portal.  And why does he still have that bat? Take it from him.”

 

Charlie had been too focused on Nate and Marshal Quinton to notice two rangers coming up behind him.  One grabbed Charlie’s arms while the other reached around and yanked the spike bat from Charlie’s hands and pulled it away.  The first kept ahold of Charlie while the man shrieked and the second ran the bat over to Nate and gave it to him.

 

Nate breathed a sigh of relief once he had the bat in his hands.  

 

Charlie pushed the guard away from him and scrambled to the wall, pressing his back against it.  He continued to shriek as he shrunk down against the wall and curled up into the fetal position.

 

“So. Who wants to get this man in a room and watch him while he’s here?  Do I need to set up a schedule? I can’t believe we’re in this situation,”  Quinton muttered loudly.

 

“He can stay with me.I’ll stay with him day to day,”  Hermann said quickly from his position with Jake, a few feet away.  “This was my fault. Please.” 

 

Quinton shook his head.  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Gottlieb.  We can all tell why you pulled him into our universe in the first place.”

 

“I’ll take responsibility for him,” Jake butted in. “It was definitely stupid of Gottlieb, but, as you said, we can all tell why he did it.  I think the man deserves some closure after everything. Maybe helping Charlie back to his universe could give him that. I’ll check in on them daily, during meals, before bed, in the morning.  I say give this to him.” 

 

Quinton stayed silent for a moment before looking at Nate.  “What do you think?”

 

Nate glanced at Charlie, curled up on the floor.  “I think Charlie is semi harmless as long as no one gives him back his bat and we keep a proper eye on him.  I’m with Jake. I think that we should give this a shot. We’ll watch him and Gottlieb. Besides, if he’s the other world’s Newton, him and Gottlieb should have plenty to talk about while the portal gets a fix.  I’ll take shifts with Jake.”

 

“Alright.  I’ll allow it. But only because you two will be watching between portal detail.  And because we don’t actually have an extra room or space I can give to him with how many people and families have migrated to work here in the last couple months. Everyone is doubling up on rooms and the good Doctor is one of the last to have his own room,”  Marshal Quinton said, gesturing to Hermann. “Get Charlie to his room, and we’ll deal with final details in the morning. Everyone out of the lab!” 

 

It took a little bit of coaxing and promises of safety to get Charlie to stand up.  No one wanted to touch the little man in fear of setting him off again. He was rather loud and no doubt the poor man would have some type of trauma from this experience.  Jake guided Charlie gently with a hand on his back while Nate went ahead to get an extra cot in Hermann’s room.

 

“Hey, you’re doing great, man.  See? No one's gonna hurt you here.  No one. We wouldn’t let it happen. You’re gonna be fine, man,”  Jake said soothingly as he led Charlie. Jake could be tender when he wanted to be.   
  
“I dunno man, I dunno.  I’m so close to freaking out.  I’m so close, dude,” Charlie’s voice was high and whiny.     
  
“You can get through tonight.  You can do this,” Jake answered.

 

Hermann was fairly certain if Jake was not walking with him, Charlie would be screaming and running around again.  Hermann half-wanted to be the one with a hand on his back, calming Charlie down. No. Not half-want, he definitely fully wanted to be the one.  

 

Something low in the pit of his stomach was twisted.  Jealousy perhaps? Yes. That was most definitely the feeling.  He wanted to be the one guiding Charlie into this world, showing him their universe step by step.  Instead, here Jake was, taking his chance to bond with Newton. Charlie. Not Newton. Yet, it was still someone he wanted to touch the shoulder of, take his hand, and show him through their old lab, the hallways, the cafeteria, the control room, the Jaegers on the floor being built.  He could see the wonderment in Charlie’s eyes, just as Newton had for everything the Shatterdome was.

 

“You’re doing fine.  This world is just like yours.  Almost exactly the same,” Jake said to Charlie, still in that smooth, calm voice.

 

“Do you have a Philadelphia?”  Charlie asked timidly.   
  
“In Pennsylvania?  Yeah. Yeah we do. That’s in the United States. Right now we’re close to Tokyo, Japan.  Do you have Tokyo?”

 

Charlie nodded.  “Yeah, we do...I think?  Isn’t Tokyo the capital of China though?  Hey, you think I could go back to Philly? Maybe the bar will be there?  And Mac, Dee, Frank, and I guess Dennis. It’s okay if there’s no Dennis.  He can be replaced. Hell, we could take Cricket for a while. Maybe he could still be a priest in this universe that doesn’t get fucked up by Dee, cause the guy has issues at this point.  And a burnt face.”   
  
“...That is a lot of people I don’t know, but maybe we could look into it?  Would you like that?”    
  
“Yeah, I’d like that,”  Charlie had seemed to calm down a lot just from talking about who must have had been his friends in the other universe.     
  
Hermann wished that Charlie was directing his blabbering to him, not Jake.  He wished to step in, but worried that if he did, Jake might take away the chance to have Charlie in his own care. 

 

They finally got to Hermann’s room and stepped into it, where Nate had just finished setting up a cot for Charlie.     
  
“There we go. All set for the night.”  Nate grinned. “Come on in. Everyone in.  Charlie, I got you some of the better pillows and blankets.  They’re from Jake’s secret stash”

 

Jake scowled.   
  
Nate rolled his eyes.  “It’s not a secret if everyone knows you won nice blankets from the medical ward doctors through poker games.”     
  
“Hey, my stash is still secret.  You shouldn’t know what I have there,”  Jake countered with a cross of his arms.  That simply earned him another eye roll from Nate.   
  
“Uh, do I gotta stay with him?  Like there’s really no where else?”  Charlie thumbed at Hermann. “I mean...this is kinda all his fault.”   
  
Hermann bristled.  He had to change that thought process immediately.  Doubt was dangerous. Or, well, this new Newton not trusting him was dangerous. After all, Hermann’s own Newton, after leaving him, had led to Precursor servitude and ten years of mental destruction. How could he keep this new Newton safe if this new Newton didn’t trust and listen to him?  Luckily, Nate came to his rescue.

 

“You won’t find someone who cares more than Doctor Gottlieb about your stay here.  You’ll be fine for the night, Charlie. Anything wrong, and there will be two guards outside that can help you out, no problem.”  

 

Nate patted Charlie on the back.  He pushed him a little towards the cot. Almost done. Almost have them out of the room so that Hermann could, at the very least, talk to Charlie.     
  
Charlie made a face.  

 

Nate and Jake headed back towards the door.  “Behave yourselves, boys, and go to sleep,” Jake said.  “Heck, sleep in. Wake up noonish, have a snack, and go back to bed.  Give us some time to get things sorted.” He grinned and finger-gunned at Charlie.  “And we will. Get this sorted, I mean.” With that little spiel, he popped out of the room first.   
  
“Don’t listen to him. Breakfast is seven am sharp. If you miss it, you miss it.” Hermann was certain this was something said to all cadets. Charlie, of course, was no cadet and Hermann did not deserve this, but perhaps it was all habit for the ranger. Nate followed Jake out.

  
Charlie watched the door close and slumped down onto the cot.     
  
“So…”  Hermann started.   
  
“You got glue and cat food anywhere?”   
  
Hermann simply tilted his head to the side in confusion. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and again the companion story by WaldosAkimbo is here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16346066

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again for reading. Comments are always appreciated, but not expected. They help keep the motor running so to speak.


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